Yemeni refugees end up at SKorea resort

JEJU, South Korea — This is the end of the line for hundreds of Yemeni refugees fleeing war 5,000 miles away.

The setting is a new one in a world of migrants and asylum seekers on the move: a resort island off South Korea’s southern coast where tourists come to dive the reefs, golf and eat local seafood specialties.

But the wider story unfolding on Jeju Island is familiar. It is about desperate people looking for any loopholes or undiscovered pathways on the migrant trails crisscrossing the globe, seeking a place willing to take them in.

It is how Africans have shown up on the U.S.Mexico border after an overland trek from Brazil, how Syrians came ashore on Greek beaches in 2015 and how Iranians are among those in holding camps on the Pacific island nation of Nauru. It is how South Korea Yemeni refugees line up to register for a job forum at the immigration office on the South Korean resort island of Jeju. was thrust into a refugee quandary that caught it by surprise.

Word was out already of Jeju’s tourist-friendly visa policies, making it one of the few places that did not require advance visas for Yemenis.

What changed this year was a new direct flight to Jeju on a budget airline from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia that also granted Yemenis a visa on arrival. At first, a

trickle of Yemenis arrived in Jeju − then many more.

Jeju dropped Yemen on June 1 from the no-visa rules to join a handful of other countries, including Syria, Iran and Nigeria.

The more than 500 Yemenis who made it to Jeju before the door closed — mostly men, but some families with children — are stranded.

“We are not wanted anywhere,” said Ahmed Abdu, 23, who left Ibb in central Yemen in April on a more than $2,000 trip that transited through Jordan and Qatar, then to Kuala Lumpur and on to Jeju. “America doesn’t want us. Europe doesn’t want us. Saudi Arabia doesn’t want us. When we heard about Jeju, we thought, ‘Maybe this is a place that can save us.’”

At first, Abdu and the other Yemenis arriving in Jeju, which has a population of about 600,000, were left to fend for themselves. They piled into hostels, cheap hotels and campgrounds.

Slowly, some help has taken shape.

On Monday, more than 200 Yemenis received free health screenings by the Korean Red Cross and lined up for jobs arranged by Jeju officials while their refugee status was being assessed, which could take months or longer.

Some took tough work that Koreans do not want — on fishing boats or fish farms making the legal minimum wage of about $1,500 a month.